


Halloween 1988

by LordSPercival



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: Autumn, Fluff, Halloween, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:41:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27133318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordSPercival/pseuds/LordSPercival
Summary: On Halloween night in 1988, Barnaby Lee got to spend a wonderful day with the person he loves most in the world.
Relationships: Barnaby Lee/Original Male Character(s)
Kudos: 8





	Halloween 1988

**Author's Note:**

> Halloween at Hogwarts? More like spooky season f l u f f. I was heavily inspired by C_St_Reed's amazing fic Stronger Together to finally finish a date night for my OC and Barnaby. A lot of feeling went into this, so I hope you enjoy :)
> 
> \- Seb

The sun had begun to set, casting a blanket of shadows across the horizon, the sky transforming into beautiful shades of oranges and purples, as the leaves fell, orange and crunchy as they amassed upon the grounds. The groundskeeper was out, desperately trying to sweep them away, but there seemed to be no use, so Hagrid retreated into his hut. 

The leaves were piled high around the edges of the low stone wall that surrounded the circular area used as the Care of Magical Creatures classroom, where Barnaby, Rowan and Sebastian were sitting on the ground, surrounded by pumpkin guts and tossed around seeds, carving jack-o-lanterns for their dormitories.

"Look!" Barnaby yelled, holding his pumpkin out to the other two. "What do you think?" He grinned proudly at his friends, who were less than impressed.

"What's it supposed to be?" Sebastian asked, tilting his head and putting on a show to look confused. Barnaby scoffed in mock hurt, and pushed into Sebastian's side, who pushed back with a grin.

"Ignore him, Barnaby." Rowan said, pushing into Sebastian's other side, but to get a better look at the pumpkin. "You can totally tell it's a Hippogriff. What's Sebastian done then? Oh." Rowan reached out and turned the pumpkin towards him, swatting away the other's protesting arms. "He carved a vampire. Big surprise."

Barnaby howled with laughter, making a red-faced Sebastian scowl, and took his pumpkin back from Rowan. "Vampires are cool!" He yelled indignantly, pushing both boys away from him. Barnaby pulled away from the push, still laughing, and laid down in the crunchy bed of leaves below them.

"What's yours then? McGonagall?" Sebastian asked as he made to take Rowan's from him, but the bespectacled teen snatched his pumpkin away, turning his head to say something, only to laugh instead. This caused Barnaby to start laughing again, while Sebastian soon followed. They thought they were done laughing, only for Sebastian to finally snatch the pumpkin, only to see that it indeed was of Professor McGonagall, which had derailed the conversation for nearly fifteen minutes, for no one could seem to do anything but laugh merrily.

By the time they had stopped laughing, the sun had nearly completely set, leaving them all in the dark, rolling on the ground, surrounded by leaves and pumpkins. 

"We should probably head up to the castle." Sebastian said as he stood, offering an arm to Barnaby who took it, and pulled himself up off of the ground. He turned to Rowan, who had already stood up. "Are you going up to the dorms?"

Rowan shook his head, pulling his bag over his shoulder. "No, but I'll meet up with you for the feast." He grabbed his pumpkin from the ground and held it in his arms, looking almost like he was a pregnant mother, and the pumpkin was his child. Rowan nodded towards the pumpkin in question. "I'm gonna run this to Professor Dumbledore's office." He said, smirking to himself. "I bet he'd like it."

There was a crash, and the boys looked over to see Barnaby staring, wide eyed, at Rowan. He had dropped his book bag in alarm, nearly crushing his pumpkin with it. "You're kidding!" He said, causing Rowan to laugh, and Sebastian to roll his eyes. "Dumbledore and McGonagall?! Since when?"

While Rowan enthusiastically reassured Barnaby, Sebastian did the opposite. "He has no proof!" He protested while he picked up Barnaby's bag for him. "Do not plague his mind with your theories! Dumbledore plays for OUR team." He gestured at himself and Barnaby, who grinned at him.

"I do!" Rowan cried, pointing at Sebastian accusingly. "You know I do! He danced with McGonagall at the Celestial Ball! You saw them!"

"I danced with McGonagall at the Celestial Ball, does that mean we've shacked up together?" Sebastian joked to make Barnaby laugh, which he did. He liked Barnaby's laugh, it was cheerful and unapologetic. Plus, he liked when people laughed at his jokes. 

"Whatever." Rowan said indignantly as he started to walk out of the clearing and towards the castle. "I'll ask him myself! He can't deny me, I'm going to have his job one day!" He waved his goodbyes to Barnaby, but stuck his tongue out at Sebastian as he passed. Sebastian, who was putting out candles around the clearing, threw a candle at him as he disappeared down the path.

Soon after Rowan, the other two boys made their own way up to the castle, lugging their bags and their pumpkins with them. The wind picked up as they walked, and Sebastian took a deep breath of the cool autumn air and sighed. "You can smell the magic in the air. I love Halloween." Barnaby hummed in response, as Sebastian drew his wand.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" Sebastian muttered, and with a swish and flick of his wand, the pumpkin in his other hand began to hover by his side. Happy with the results, he turned to Barnaby. "Want me to do yours?" He asked, to which Barnaby shook his head.

"I like carrying it." Barnaby said, looking fondly at the pumpkin in his arms. "I made it, doesn't that make it like, my child?" He looked slyly at Sebastian, grinning when the other caught his eye. "I hope you're ready to be a dad!"

Sebastian shuddered at the thought, remembering his too recent encounter with babysitting Lucius Malfoy's child. "Why don't we rewind a little," he said as he took the pumpkin from Barnaby and made it levitate beside him, earning a puppy dog face from the taller Slytherin, "and you can just hold my hand instead." He offered his hand out to Barnaby.

Any trace of Barnaby's pouting quickly disappeared as he smiled, and happily took Sebastian's hand, linking their fingers together. "I like your idea much better."

Sebastian squeezed Barnaby's hand as a reply, and stepped to the side to be a bit closer to him. "Did you and your gran ever celebrate Halloween?" He asked, hoping not to pry, but to learn more about his boyfriend, now that he could call him that.

Barnaby shook his head and shrugged. "Not that I can remember." He looked up, squinting at the sky, as if it held the key to his lost memories. "I think one year she put a shrunken head on the door, to keep the Muggle kids away." He shuddered at the memory and pushed it aside in his mind. "Wasn't your dad a muggle? What did he do for Halloween?"

Sebastian was quiet for a moment, but eventually he shrugged. "I didn't know my father for long, he died when I was young." He said, squeezing Barnaby's hand again. He immediately felt the other squeeze back. "We didn't do anything, but I like that. Not just some other holiday ruined by Jacob's absence."

It wasn't intentional, but for a brief moment, the atmosphere around them changed. "I'm sorry" Barnaby stopped walking, still holding on to Sebastian's hand. "I wasn't thinking, I shouldn't have asked, I-" He didn't know what to say, or how better to apologize, but Sebastian interrupted him.

"It's all right, Barnaby." He said, pulling Barnaby closer to him and into a hug. "I love you for caring, but believe me." He said, gripping the back of the other's sweater as he wrapped his arms around him. "I'm not some kid anymore, I won't let my family drama control me anymore." 

Barnaby didn't want the hug to end, but soon it did, and Sebastian was looking at him, standing a bit too close, with a soft smile on his face. It made Barnaby smile too. "I forget how strong you are sometimes."

Sebastian scoffed softly to himself, staring up at Barnaby with suspicion. "Are you trying to flatter me so I'll kiss you?" He asked, stepping forward a bit and placing his hands on Barnaby's waist. "It's working, if you are."

Barnaby laughed softly as he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend again, pulling him ever closer. "No, but I'll take that kiss anyway." His smirk still played on his lips as the shorter teen closed the gap between them, standing on his toes to reach the Slytherin properly. It wasn't a heated kiss, but there was still plenty of feeling behind it. The warm, tender feeling of being with someone you love.

"You know," Sebastian said, finally releasing Barnaby from their kiss. "We could always make our own traditions for Halloween." He said as he looked over at the pumpkins, still hovering beside them. "We'll have to put away our pumpkins first, though."

Barnaby looked like he was about to respond about the pumpkins, but then yelled, suddenly, to a pair of students ahead of them, pulling open the great doors to the Entrance Hall. "Hey Liz! Talbott!"

As the students turned to see who called them, a brilliant grin dawned on Sebastian's face. "Barnaby," he said, grabbing him by the hand again and pulling him towards the other two. "You're a genius!" Sebastian didn't see it, but the compliment made Barnaby blush.

"Talbott! Liz! Hi!" Sebastian greeted enthusiastically and out of breath. He doubled over, momentarily placing his hand on Talbott's shoulder for support, who seemed to shy away from the touch.

"Uh. Hey, Sebastian. Barnaby." Talbott nodded to each of them, pulling a face in his confusion. Liz smiled at both of them, then pointed at the pumpkins, slowly hovering down the path they had just taken, clearly unable to keep up. 

"Oh! Were you carving pumpkins? Why didn't you say, we could have joined you!" Liz said, arching an eyebrow at Barnaby, who shrunk under her gaze.

“Uh- Oh, it was a-” He looked to Sebastian for support, who shrugged, looking slyly up at Liz. She had stopped now, but had now crossed her arms.

Sebastian shrunk as well. “An impromptu hang sesh?” He said, causing Liz to snort. Talbott didn’t seem to find it funny. He arched a pointed eyebrow himself, but at Sebastian, who didn’t know how to react to it except to freeze in place.

“We could have...flown by for a chat.” He said to Sebastian alone, looking him intently in the eye. Sebastian smirked at him, and he smirked back. It was a secret kept between the two of them, for they were both unregistered Animagi, bound by their own fear of the law to tell anyone, even their friends, about their shared hidden ability.

“Are you going back to the dorms, both of you?” Sebastian asked. When they both nodded, he grinned at the both of them. “Great! Can you take our pumpkins with you? We were gonna-”

“Nope! Not listening!” Liz suddenly shouted, covering her ears while Talbott started to walk away, but not before Sebastian pushed his hovering pumpkin into his arms. “I don’t want to know why the two of you want to run off together.” She took the pumpkin from Barnaby, smiling at the Hippogriff carved into it. “Meet up with us at the feast! You too Talbott!” She yelled after them as Sebastian and Barnaby ran, hand in hand up the closest flight of stairs. Talbott was already halfway to Ravenclaw tower.

Running past portraits and suits of armor, all missing their helmets, only to be replaced with carved pumpkins, Barnaby squeezed Sebastian’s hand as he led the Slytherin up the stairs. “What are you up to?” He asked his partner, who turned to look at him, but failed to stop running, causing him to nearly run straight into the end of the hallway.

Sebastian stopped at the foot of a winding metal staircase and turned to look at Barnaby again. “I wanted to surprise you, but..” He said, walking backwards up the stairs as he continued to face the taller teen, smiling down at him from a few stairs above. “I thought we could look at the trees from above, you know.” He blushed softly, looking away as he finished. “I thought it’d be romantic.”

“Aww” Barnaby said as he quickly caught up to the same step as Sebastian. “You want to be romantic with me, that’s sweet.” He pulled his boyfriend closer to him, who playfully punched him in the arm for teasing him. “That’s good though, because I want to be romantic with you too.” 

Sebastian snorted, rolling his eyes, he wrapped his arm around Barnaby’s waist as they approached the door leading into the Astronomy room. “Barnaby Lee, the charmer.” He joked and Barnaby laughed. This, Sebastian decided, is what love was. The cold, October air nipping at the skin on his face and ruffling his hair as it rushed in from the open balcony of the Astronomy Tower. The feeling of warmth to combat against it, lent to you by the unconditional aid of the person you love as you both walk, happily, into the arms of destiny, not excited about the destination, but the journey you spend together. 

They walked across the room to the balcony and stood at it’s edge, gazing across the vast, but darkened grounds. “Hmmm.” Sebastian hummed to himself, looking a bit dejected. “I don’t suppose you mind coming back tomorrow?” He asked, turning his head to look at his boyfriend.

Barnaby gave him a questioning look, turning his head and pulling a face. “People call me stupid every day,” He said, shaking his head with a smirk, and pulling out his wand. “But I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten that I was a wizard. _Lumos Maxima _!” Sebastian let out a bark of a laugh at his own stupid mistake and watched as a large, bright orb of light shot from Barnaby’s wand, circling the sky a time or two before coming to rest twenty feet above them, illuminating the grounds below. “Better?” He asked, putting his wand away and pulling Sebastian closer to him.__

__“Much better,” Sebastian replied, pulling out his own wand. “I bet I can top it, though.” He smirked as he pointed his wand at the orb above them. “ _Sidus Siderum _!”___ _

____Immediately, the bright orb exploded into hundreds of smaller, brighter orbs, and scattered across the night sky, hovering in place in the air above them. Barnaby grinned, the reflection of the stars making his eyes gleam. “It’s beautiful.” He said, unable to tear his eyes away._ _ _ _

____“It really is” Sebastian said, though it wasn’t the sky he was looking at, it was Barnaby. The pure happiness, as clear as their artificially made starry sky, made Sebastian’s heart swell as his pulse quickened. “You know something?” He asked, turning to fully face Barnaby this time._ _ _ _

____Even though it was cold out, Sebastian felt no discomfort. He did not shiver as the wind picked up, for the way Barnaby was looking at him had him nearly in a puddle. His eyes were soft, but he looked at him with concern. “What’s up?” He asked, grabbing Sebastian by the waist and pulling him closer. Sebastian wrapped his arms around Barnaby’s neck in response._ _ _ _

____“Nothing.” He said, wanting to kiss him, but holding off, knowing it would come soon. “I just… really wanted to tell you that… no matter how things could have gone, I’m glad things are the way they are now.” Barnaby looked confused, but did not interrupt. “What I mean is, I’m glad you’re here with me, and we can be doing this right now. I love you.”_ _ _ _

____Barnaby’s face turned red, but Sebastian wasn’t entirely sure that it wasn’t just from the cold. “Sebastian, I-” He started to say, but seemed to think better of it, because a moment later, he had closed the distance between them, and pulled him into a deep and passionate kiss. He was the one to pull away first. “I love you too.” He said, smiling as he brushed a stray lock of hair from Sebastian’s face, who leaned into the touch. “The day we became friends, we were enemies, do you remember?” Sebastian nodded. “I threatened to hurt you, but you still helped me. What I’m trying to say is… Thanks for loving me. I didn’t know what that felt like before you.”_ _ _ _

____In a different situation, hearing Barnaby say such a thing so casually would have crushed Sebastian. He knew Barnaby had a tough childhood, but not that he had never felt love before. This revelation stirred something inside of Sebastian, filling him with determination. “I don’t ever want you to feel unloved.” He said, reaching up and holding Barnaby’s face between his hands. Barnaby’s eyes had never left his own, still giving him that soft, loving look. “Because you never will be again. I swear it.” He kissed Barnaby this time, who kissed him back._ _ _ _

____Sebastian was content, so content that he probably could have stayed there forever, feeling nothing but Barnaby’s warmth and love as they stood, tangled together under the night sky. This came to an end, however, when Barnaby shivered, and Sebastian decided that they headed down to the feast early. They left the Astronomy Tower as they had arrived, hand in hand, and very deeply in love._ _ _ _

____ _ _

____“So, how did Dumbledore like his new pumpkin?” Sebastian asked as he leaned across the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall towards Rowan, who was sitting across for him. “Did he admit anything to you, Future Headmaster?” He smirked at his friend, who shrugged, shaking his head._ _ _ _

____“No such luck, but I’m still right.” Rowan replied lazily as he gestured his wand towards one of Hagrid’s giant pumpkins, causing it to turn purple. “He thought it was a great laugh though. He said I should do Snape next.”_ _ _ _

____Barnaby, who was sitting next to Sebastian, snorted. “I’d hate to be the poor bastard who Snape catches carving his face into a pumpkin.” Sebastian laughed and grabbed Barnaby’s hand under the table, who squeezed it._ _ _ _

____Liz, Talbott, Ben, and Penny had also joined them at the Ravenclaw table, and had almost all laughed at Barnaby’s joke, except for Talbott, who glanced nervously at the teacher’s table to make sure Snape had not heard them laugh at him._ _ _ _

____“We should have all carved pumpkins together!” Penny pouted, not liking that her friends had not invited her. “Ben and I spent all day picking pumpkins with Hagrid, we could have had a contest!” Ben, who was sitting next to her, agreed._ _ _ _

____“It would have been nice to have been invited.” He said in his usual, slightly sad voice. This may have worked to get Sebastian to agree with him when they were younger, but Sebastian had grown used to Ben’s pouting._ _ _ _

____“You can come next year mate, promise.” Sebastian said, looking around at his friends. “We all can do it. We’ll get Diego and Jae as well, and Chiara and Tulip. It’ll be fun.” They all agreed, and Liz cheered._ _ _ _

____“Yes! I can’t wait! You’re going down, Blondie!” Liz shouted as she stared down Penny with a glint in her eye. Penny blushed and turned her head from Liz, giggling as she did so._ _ _ _

____Sebastian recognized the look on Penny’s face and subtly tried to catch Barnaby’s eye, who was already looking at him with a glint in his eye. They would talk about it later, Sebastian decided, as the great silver plates and trays around the table suddenly filled up with vast amounts of hot, delicious food._ _ _ _

____After a lot of laughing, joking, and way too much eating, Rowan, Sebastian, and Talbott waved goodbye to their friends, Sebastian having stopped to kiss Barnaby goodnight, in the Entrance Hall and headed up the stairs towards Ravenclaw Tower, stuffed and content after their feast. Rowan and Talbott had been talking about the Transfiguration quiz the day before, while Sebastian reflected on his day, and decided that he was very lucky to have such great friends, and even luckier to have such an amazing boyfriend._ _ _ _

____In his dormitory, now in his pajamas and sitting on his bed, Sebastian flicked his wand and lit the candle inside the pumpkin that sat on his nightstand. It was a surprise to see that it was not his pumpkin, but Barnaby’s. Having no idea how they might have gotten switched, he decided that he liked having something of Barnaby’s with him while he slept. He got under the covers, and quickly fell asleep, where he dreamed about starry skies, red leaves, and the soft, green eyes of his Slytherin boyfriend._ _ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> A massive, massive thank you to NearlyHeadlessNicci and SpaciousIgnatius for helping me with beta reading and general suggestions, I couldn't have finished this without you guys. Please leave comments below, I would love to hear your guys' feedback! <3
> 
> \- Seb


End file.
